An associate of mine is of the opinion that American Airlines and United Airlines were chosen by the 9/11 hijackers exclusively due to the symbolic value of committing terrorism with these air carriers, as opposed to say Delta or Southwest.
Thoughts? Citations that the 9/11 masterminds thought this?
Mr. Neville thinks so, too. I don’t know if there is any actual evidence that the planners of 9/11 actually did think this way, though.
I had thought that the hijackers chose their flights because they were all 757’s and 767’s that were fully fueled for cross-country flights taking off as close together as possible. Just the size factor would rule out Southwest; their fleet is exclusively 737’s (if they even fly out of those airports).
Come again? What symbolic value?
Because they have “United” and “America” in their names?
I agree, the names don’t convey any significant symbolism to the general public. They’re all private companies and names are names. If they were a national carrier (like Air France) then it might have been (but not necessarily would) significant.
That seems like a stretch, especially with “United.” To me that name indicates that several companies merged together.
I guess no one can say for sure, but it seems the key factors that the terrorists were looking for were that the flights were from the east coast to the west coast in big planes. That right there narrows down your selection quite a bit.
The issue of flight selection, when you’re specifically targeting domestic flights with large planes scheduled for long flights in the same general area, suggests that American and United are among a limited number of possible options.
Surely, symbolically, US Air would make just as much sense? But not as many flight options.
They also needed a First Class cabin to give them some cover and a numbers advantage in a small space.